Featuring a 50 megapixel MF sensor and the revolutionary new True Focus technology, the H4D-50 camera system will change the way you think about high-end photography.

The H4D series is built upon the successful H3D platform and comes bundled with the new Phocus 2.0 imaging software.

Delivery of the H4D-50 will begin in first quarter of 2010.  H3DII-50 cameras purchased between now and the first quarted of 2010 will be upgraded to the H4D-50 free of charge.

The H4D-50 features True Focus with APL (Absolute Position Lock), making auto-focus substantially easier and more accurate for photography professionals. H4D-50 is the top model of Hasselblad’s camera family.    It sets a new standard for camera handling, image detail and image resolution. With a 50Mpix sensor covering the classic 645-format, it provides the basis for optimal lens performance with the HC lenses at lens factor 1.0, and the HCd lenses at lens factor 1.0 with a marginal crop. For developing your creative expression the H4D-50 takes full advantage of Hasselblad’s HTS 1.5 tilt/shift adapter. With its unique large and bright viewfinders,  its wide range of quality lenses matching the best of the icon lenses from Carl Zeiss, and its wide choice of accessories, the H4d-50 is the ultimate camera choice for the professional photographer.

Raising the bar from H3d

Expanding on the great feature set of the H3d camera-line, Hasselblad
introduces a set of new camera features with the H4d-50:

•    new 3” double-res TFT 24bit color display with large viewing angle
•    new camera electronics delivering the basis for True Focus and ultra fast Auto Focus
•    new True Focus auto-focus system with Absolute Position Lock with new camera controls
•    new improved AF assist lights for working in dark environments
•    new 90 MB/sec read-write  performance on Extreme Pro cards from Sandisk
•    new rear uni-body housing for improved local servicing

The H4D-50 camera system has been especially designed to meet    
demands for both flexibility and ultimate image quality. This includes:
•    highest image resolution from 50Mpixel sensor
•    the freedom to choose between eye-level and waist-level view-finders
•    the choice of combining point-and–shoot and tilt/shift to solve creative commercial challenges
•    the ability to combine working tethered and un-tethered to get the most of your camera system both on location and in the studio
•    the option of processing your raw images in Hasselblad’s Phocus imaging toolbox, or working with your raw images directly in Apple or adobe imaging environments.

Basic ISO rating is from ISO 50 to ISO 800. The H4D-50 makes use of a new high speed capture architecture capturing full size, compressed 80Mbyte images at the rate of 1.1 seconds per capture, working either mobile or tethered to a computer. The combination of these features makes the H4D-50 the natural choice for the professional commercial photographer wanting to work with the highest image resolution within a camera system that supports ultimate creative expression in order to deliver outstanding image quality to satisfy the most demanding customer.

An impressive lens line outperforming the Carl Zeiss icons

The highly renowned HC/HCD lens line includes 11 Auto-Focus lenses,  all with central lens shutters. Range is from 28mm to 300mm, 35-90 mm zoom, 50-110mm zoom, and 1.7X converter. The HTS 1.5 tilt/shift adapter delivers an easy to use, portable tilt/shift solution for 5 HC/ HCD lenses ranging from  28mm to 100mm. The central shutter, with flash sync speed up to 1/800s, also improves image quality by reducing  camera vibration. The CF adapter allows use of the classic CF-lenses from the Hasselblad V-camera, with full use of their central shutters, allowing flash to be employed at shutter speeds up to 1/500s. And thanks to the large format of the H System cameras, there is a considerably shallower depth of field range, making it much easier to utilize selective focus to creative effect.

A choice of large and bright viewfinders

One of the important traditional advantages of the medium format is the extra-large and bright viewfinder image, enabling extremely precise compositions and easy operation in dim lighting. The H4D-50 comes  with the HV 90x viewfinder designed for full performance over the large sensor. Hasselblad has added an interchangeable waist-level viewfinder,  the HVM, for the entire range of H system cameras. The bright and large  viewfinder image is ideal for creative composing and the photographer is able to shoot in the fashion that suits them most; maintaining eye contact with the model, or gaining impact by shooting from a point lower than eye-level, for example.

True Focus and Absolute Position Lock

True Focus helps solve one of the most lingering challenges that faces serious photographers today: true, accurate focusing throughout the image field. Without multi-point auto-focus a typical auto-focus camera can only correctly measure focus on a subject that is in the center of the image. When a photographer wants to focus on a subject outside the center area, they have to lock focus on the subject and then re-compose the image. In short distances especially, this re-composing causes focus error, as the plane of focus sharpness follows the camera’s movement, perpendicular to the axis of the lens.

The traditional solution for most DSLRs has been to equip the camera  with a multi-point AF sensor. These sensors allow the photographer to fix  an off-center focus point on an off-center subject, which is then focused  correctly. Due to the physics of an SLR-camera, the off-center focus points that are offered are all clustered relatively close to the center of  the image. to set focus outside of this center area, the photographer is still forced to focus first, and then shift the camera to reframe, with the resulting loss of focus as a result.

To overcome this problem, Hasselblad has used modern yaw rate sensor  technology to measure angular velocity in an innovative way. The result is the new Absolute Position Lock (APL) processor, which forms the foundation of Hasselblad’s True Focus feature. The APL processor accurately logs camera movement during any re-composing, then uses these exact measurements to calculate the necessary focus adjustment, and issues the proper commands to the lens’s focus motor so it can compensate. The APL processor computes the advanced positional algorithms and carries out the required focus corrections at such rapid speed that no shutter lag occurs. The H4D’s firmware then further perfects the focus using the precise data retrieval system found on all HC/HCD lenses.

Phocus software driving down the learning curve

Phocus provides an advanced software toolbox that has been especially  designed to easily achieve optimum workflow and absolute image perfection from Hasselblad raw image files.

With the H4D-50 camera system Phocus provides:
• Uncompromising Image Quality
• Special extended camera controls with which to operate your H4D-50 camera. these features, such as live video for easier shot set-up and workflow, or the ability to control the lens drive for focusing when the camera is in a remote position or when the digital capture unit is mounted on a view camera, bring an entirely new level of flexibility to the way you shoot.
• Moiré Removal Technology automatically applied directly on the raw data, leaving image quality intact and eliminating the need to carry out special masking selections or other manual procedures, saving hours of tedious post-production work.
• Flexible Workflow. The Phocus GUI features easy-to-use options that allow you to customize your set-up to suit a range of different workflow situations, such as choice of import source, browsing/comparison functions, file management, image export in a number of file formats, pre-setting of options for upcoming shoots, and much, much more.
• New Metadata (GPS, etc). The extended metadata included in all Phocus images provides for accurate and detailed cataloguing and indexing, easy image management, and includes added GPS data functionality in order to allow a range of new functions. Phocus links GPS data directly to Google Earth, for example, making geographic reference a snap and image storage and retrieval much easier.
• Perfect Viewing Quality. The Phocus Viewer delivers image viewing quality that matches every detail of what you will see later in Photoshop. In addition, the Phocus Viewer allows you to customize layout and composition to suit your current or desired workflow, providing a wide range of options including full view, compare, browse, horizontal, or vertical view, and so on. You can have multiple folders open simultaneously for side-by-side viewing, comparison, and selection.

Hasselblad’s unique natural colors

Hasselblad’s Natural Color Solution (HNCS) enables you to produce outstanding and reliable out-of-the-box colors, with skin tones, specific product colors and other difficult tones reproduced easily and effectively. In order to incorporate our new unique HNCS and DAC-features we have developed a custom Hasselblad raw file format called 3F RAW (3FR).  This file format includes lossless image compression, which reduces the required storage space by 33%. The 3FR files can be converted into Adobe’s raw image format DNG (‘Digital Negative’), bringing this new technology standard to the professional photographer for the first time. In order to utilize DAC and optimize the colors of the DNG file format, conversion from 3FR must take place through Phocus.

Accessories including GPS Recording Flexibility

Hasselblad’s Global Image Locator (GIL) is an accessory for use with any Hasselblad H-System digital capture product. With the GIL device, all images captured outside are tagged with GPS coordinates, time and altittude. This data provides the key to a number of future applications involving image archiving and retrieval. One example is the direct mapping of images in Phocus software to the Google Earth application. 
Check out full list of accessories at: http://www.hasselblad.com/prod-
ucts/lenses-and-accessories/h-system-accessories.aspx

Ultra-Focus and Digital Auto Correction for image perfection

The H4D-50 camera allows information from the lens and exact capture conditions to be fed to the camera processor for ultra-fine-tuning of the  auto-focus mechanism, taking into account the design specifications of the lens and the optical specifications of the sensor. In this way the full HC lens program is even further enhanced, bringing a new level of sharpness and resolution. digital correction for color aberration and distortion is also added. “Digital Auto Correction” (DAC), is an APO-chromatic correction of the images based on a combination of the various parameters concerning each specific lens for each specific shot, ensuring that each image represents the best that your equipment can produce.

Instant Approval Architecture (IAA), an enhanced 

Building on the success of its Audio Exposure Feedback techno-logy, Hasselblad has created Instant Approval Architecture (IAA), an enhanced set of feedback tools, designed to enable the photographer to focus on the shoot rather than the selection process. iaa triggers audible andvisual signals for each image captured, notifying the photographer imme-diately of its classification status. The information is recorded both in the file and in the file name, providing a quick and easy way to classify and select images, in the field or back at the studio. IAA is a Hasselblad trademark and Hasselblad has a patent pending on the invention. Extra large 3” display on the H4D-50 provide a realistic, high quality and perfect contrast image view, even in bright sunlight.